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Lesser Impact For Doug Martin

June 10th, 2014

Many Bucs fans and NFL observers raised an eyebrow when Lovie Smith, just minutes after the Bucs drafted running back Charles Sims in the third round, stated he was looking specifically for a running back who could catch.

Then Lovie described Sims as his next Matt Forte. This led some to wonder if Doug Martin’s days were numbered.

Joe said right away it was to lengthen Martin’s career by putting him on a pitch count and not running him into the ground and burning Martin out after two or three years. Honestly, that’s the smart move.

Perhaps no one sounded the alarm of what he perceived as the demise of Martin more than NFL analyst Evan Silva. The face of Rotoworld.com, Silva right away sensed Martin would be de-emphasized in the Bucs offense.

Yesterday, Silva explained Martin’s lesser impact this season isn’t just because of the acquisition of Sims.

RE: Doug Martin’s #fantasyfootball outlook. Potentially porous guard play may be just as big a concern as Charles Sims & Tedford’s history.

As Joe has stated time and again, he doesn’t care about fantasy football. Joe’s fantasies are of a higher calling. Joe, however, gets where Silva is coming from. Fantasy football guys aren’t going to draft players who will have lesser impacts.

Joe has no problem with Martin getting fewer carries. The smart move is to extend Martin’s career by reducing his abuse. The easiest way to do this is to spread the wealth, distribute the football around.

The way it appears the Bucs will be putting the ball in the air and capitalizing on players in space, it sure smells like Martin’s days as a 25-rushes-per-game back are over.

This is an example of why I do not understand the appeal of FF. I guess I get the competitive part of trying to figure out a winning team. But a winning FF team has nothing to do with a real team because of factors like you’ve just mentioned Joe.

Fewer carries, less production for Martin might be horrid for his FF numbers but what if it’s exactly what the Bucs need and what if as Joe suggests if actually lengthens Martin’s career….a win win for player and team but a loss for FFers.

Much of Martin’s workload will be determined by his own play and not what some fantasy guy thinks. If we see the same guy we did in his rookie season, there is no way his number of touches will be severely curtailed.
If Martin looks like he did last year, i.e. tentative to hit the the hole, Sims and James will be getting a lot of extra work.

I keep the Bucs away from My FF teams. Always have. Always will. Too much of a conflict of interest. So I’m perfectly happy with Doug getting a few less carries, as long all the RB’s combined have a good game.

@StPete. For me, the appeal of FF is when a game is on say SNF or MNF, it’s fun to have a dog in the fight of a game I would normally not be too interested in.

Plus, even though it’s only one day a year, the draft is pretty fun. Gather 11 other people to a house and get sh!tty drunk, and talk football.

It’s fun to make predictions too. Just like we all do every day on this here corner of the interwebs.

Good lord fans were up in arms that Schiano couldn’t figure out how to use Blount, a guy the team had virtually nothing invested in. Can you imagine the outrage if Lovie can’t figure out how to use Martin, a 1st round pick who had an amazing rookie season? Not gonna happen, both backs will get carries with Martin remaining the main man

I liked someone’s suggestion for Dig Dug as Martin’s nickname. Fantasy football, I can live without it. What’s really exciting is a huge bank of TV’s, the ability to bet on your teams and the atmosphere surrounding it. We need Nevada’s football gambling in Florida.